A kitchen isn’t complete without the utensil that every “chef” needs, right? It could be from slicing a thick cut of pork to just dicing an onion. As long as you know how to properly handle your knives, then you will always do a great job in the kitchen. How can you do those tasks without even having the right knives anyway?
If you wondered which knives you needed in your kitchen and why you even need those in the first place, you’ve come to a very good place to learn about them! I’ll just be going over which knives you need in your kitchen and what you would use them for.
Remember that you don’t need to fill out most of the woodblock that you have in your kitchen, since all you’ll really need is 4. So don’t go out splurging for knives just so you can have a nice, filled out knife woodblock in your kitchen counter.
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Different Types Of Knives That You Need
Each of the knives that you need should serve a purpose, and not one should be used for a different task, which is why you’re going to need these 4 types of knives that perform their own tasks. Make sure you don’t forget what tasks they are made for because if you use them for the wrong purpose, you might dull the edge, and no one likes using a dull knife.
Chef’s Knife
What’s a chef or home-cook without his knife, right? The chef’s knife will be your primary workforce in any kitchen because this is the knife you will be using for most of the tasks you have to do while cooking. Like with any racket sport, that knowledge is also applied here with the knife; the knife should be an extension of your hand!
You can have two variations of the chef’s knife; it probably depends on what you prefer. You can choose the chef’s knife with a length of 8 inches, or the one with 10 inches. Both can work just fine, but if you prefer to slice with longer strokes, then the 10-inch chef’s knife should be your pick.
Paring Knife
This the smallest knife that you’ll have in your arsenal of knives because it’s used for the smaller and more delicate tasks. Tasks like removing the cores of fruits and vegetables or maybe peeling the skins of fruits whenever a peeler isn’t present. If the children want to help out, the paring knife is the one to give to them since they’ll have more control over it.
Serrated Bread Knife
No other knife can cut into the crusts of baguettes and rustic bread like the serrated bread knife. The jagged edge lets your cut into the bread quickly and safely, just like how a chef’s knife would do with an onion. Remember that this is for bread and not for acidic vegetables like tomatoes; those can actually damage the blade, so make sure to keep this dry.
Although bread is one of the softest foods in the kitchen, you may have trouble slicing it with regular knives. If you force the issue, you could end up having uneven slices and ripped up pieces of bread. Using a bread knife prevents such problems. Because of its serrated teeth, bread knives can easily go through bread without dragging pieces with it. Foodal has a detailed guide on the best bread knives you can buy.
Carving/Slicing Knife
This is sort of the same knife as the serrated bread knife – but with a different, fancier name! Much like the serrated bread knife, the carving knife is also very long but also quite thin. This encourages the wielder to cut thinner slices of meat; the length also allows for a sawing motion that is specifically used when carving large meat slices.
Kitchen Shears
Though this shouldn’t really count as a knife, it’s still an excellent blade to have in your kitchen, since it’s a very good replacement for a chef’s knife. Not to mention that the way you use it is just like using any ordinary scissors. You could use it to cut up herbs, divide the chicken pieces, or maybe even prepare shrimps!
Others
Though you might think that having a large cleaver or a thin filet knife in your home might be useful, it’ll probably just take up most of the space that you have in your drawers. If you want to save some time and effort, I suggest leaving the butchering and filleting to the pros! A steak knife can be substituted with a utility knife!
Takeaway
Here you have a list of the blades and knives that every kitchen should have! Though we didn’t really say anything about the price points, we’ll be linking some articles that you could read up on if you want to see a good selection of each of the knives! Be sure to be careful with each blade and learn how to handle each one for the task they were made for!
In closing, here’s a popular video detailing the four types of knives that you actually need in the kitchen:
